129 Responses

  1. Bud
    Bud April 5, 2016 at 10:45 am |

    Not a Mac user but just last night my Neat Desktop Software started to complain that I need to log in in order to sync. Also tried to sign-in on their web site and was told I need to pay for support. Many many complaints about their support. Your article is the only thing I could find regarding the announcement. The company, at the very least, should have offered to archive the last supported version for those of us that don’t hold the Cloud and the answer to all problems. I also think that the sync message that keeps showing up is meant to drive us to pay them money and go to the Cloud.

    Hope someone will figure out how to stop the stupid message.

    Reply
    1. Meteorlady
      Meteorlady July 12, 2017 at 10:41 am |

      I upgraded to Sierra and am sad that I did. It totally trashed my Neat Desk software so then I decided what the heck and “rented” their web based software. It is HORRIBLE. I can’t even begin to tell you how many hours I have spent trying to make it work. I am not working, but it is slow and sometimes the scan doesn’t produce an image, but just the information.

      Then I cannot scan over maybe 10 pages of a combined without it going into la la land.

      I have contacted support for numerous issues and they are clueless. They send me back a link to the support page that doesn’t match anything I asked. Or they answer the question by telling me to reinstall the drivers and software which doesn’t work at all. And, when I call I get an East Indian who is reading from her PC and telling me to do all the things I have already done that didn’t work.

      My old job was Project Manager for Computing development and I can tell you if any of my programmers/testers would have implemented this piece of crap software I would have fired them on the spot.

      All I get from Tech Support is “I apologize for that”… and the just keep saying that until you want to spring across the line and strangle them. As you can tell I’m really really frustrated and unhappy that they took a really good system and trashed it like this.

      Reply
      1. Fee
        Fee June 4, 2018 at 11:53 am |

        can someone clarify how exactly sierra wrecked the software? does it stop you from using it or it just wiped out your storage or what

        Reply
        1. Long Time Neat User
          Long Time Neat User June 27, 2018 at 1:43 pm |

          I use it with Sierra. It only wipes out items already in there if you try to Combine two or more receipts, and it crashes. In that case, it loses (totally) all the scans except the primary one. This has been a major issue for me so I just don’t combine anymore. My neatfile is pretty huge, and that could also be an issue (7GB single file). Also, cropping tends to crash regularly (75% of time) so I don’t do that either in Sierra.

          Second, the scanner button no longer works, even with driver reloaded, so I have to use the scanner icon (or quick key) to scan. And it won’t let me scan another page until it’s almost done processing. Previously on PC version, I could scan as fast as it would feed (Neat portable scanner) and just wait for the processing to catch up. Now it is painfully slow.

          Additionally, some things don’t work – like multi-page scanning and decent recognition of the info on the receipt (this is much better on the old PC version). I also ended up getting the “Lite” cloud version so I could scan multiple receipts faster. It’s not much better in recognition but at least I can scan one after another.

          Note that the Cloud version shows the folders in a different order than what is on your desktop, but they are all there.

          I almost got a cheap PC ($250) and used the old PC desktop version as standalone to save the $80/yr cloud fee, but for now this seems to work going between the two (cloud and Mac) and synching.

          Reply
        2. David Bidwell
          David Bidwell December 7, 2018 at 7:16 pm |

          Wow I must have gotten Lucky I’m Using Mojave and still have the Neat Legacy Software and It is working just fine. But Now that you say that I should start thinking about Switching to Something else before it stops working.

          Reply
  2. Daniel
    Daniel April 5, 2016 at 10:47 am |

    I think it’s time we worked together to create a large system that could integrate with all point-of-sale devices and just email you all receipts for purchases. Seems like it wouldn’t be that challenging at point.

    Reply
    1. Keith G
      Keith G July 28, 2016 at 4:07 pm |

      I agree with @Christopher as far as “be careful what you wish for.” And also, just because the POS systems ~could~ integrate with such a system, that doesn’t mean that they ~would~. Case in point is disqus.com as a central login for comment sites like this one. When I first signed up with a disqus user ID, I thought, great, I won’t have to come up with a user ID and password for all these sites that I interact with, I’ll just be able to use my one ID everywhere. No such luck. Some want to sync with Facebook account, or Twitter, Google+, etc. Very disappointing. I wouldn’t ever wait for anything that is going to be centralized that’s going to make it easier for us, the end users, because that’s not what companies are in business to do.

      Reply
  3. Dave
    Dave April 11, 2016 at 4:27 pm |

    Great post! I too read the notification on the support page sounding the alarm on no more support for the desktop client. I have at least 3 years of data stored up. For me that is the real issue, when will I lose access to my data when the app no longer works? Looking for alternatives is becoming a priority and one I can export what I have filed away to. I was going to try the cloud offering but in checking I can’t tell where the cloud is (AWS, Google, AZURE, Russia) there is just no information. Then the lack of corporate information, you have to go to Bloomberg and facebook just to get a clue. The clincher are employee reviews on Glassdoor. They are not good and have a common theme. NEAT would be possibly be a great acquisition for Evernote, or Microsoft as part of office. But for now I feel compelled to move to another platform. The question is how do I take what I have with me?

    Reply
  4. Bud
    Bud April 12, 2016 at 5:34 pm |

    @Dave: – Thanks for the response but don’t understand the use of the serial number to get rid of the messages to sync. For those of you that have the same problem, their support site points you to the tools menu to turn the sync off. The latest version of the software doesn’t have such an option.

    Bud

    Reply
  5. Bud
    Bud April 13, 2016 at 10:35 am |

    Christopher – I am using the latest version of the Desktop version. I have never used the cloud or the cloud app. As of the end of May the Desktop version, when opening and off and on while scanning and reading, will pop up the message “SIGN IN TO INITIATE SYNC”. You click “cancel” several times and the message goes away. It then pops up at random times. There doc’s for Windows says there is an option under “tools” to disable sync thus I presume disabling the message. Unfortunately there is no option in the latest Desktop version (5.7.1_474)

    Bud

    Reply
    1. durfmobile
      durfmobile June 6, 2017 at 11:54 pm |

      Close Neat. Run the Neat Support Center exe (Start Menu, under Neat folder), Advanced tab, click Disable Sync. Run Neat.

      Reply
  6. Bud
    Bud April 13, 2016 at 2:25 pm |

    You are probably right about nag mode. Have been searching for the scanned PDF/Images and can’t find them. Almost leads me to believe they are stored in the database. May be the only way to get them out is to export each PDF so you can load it into another package if Neatworks ever stops working. I am a windows user (windows 10). If anyone has information on getting the data out and backing it up for that rainy day I would appreciate it.

    Bud

    Reply
  7. Bud
    Bud April 18, 2016 at 10:28 am |

    Just wanted to follow up on the “nags to sync”. I submitted a ticked to NEAT and this morning they answered. They admitted to making an error. This morning I opened NEAT and answer the sync messages and it now appears to have gone away. No “nagging” thus far.

    Have also downloaded a copy of File Center. Does work with the NEAT Desktop scanner with a little adjustment. Only thing I have found is that the pages don’t get resorted by File Center so them come in in pars if you are using duplex. 3-4 1-2 if you are scanning a two page double sided doc. You can re-arrange them manually. Will contact File Center to see if there is a way to correct this when scanning. May wait and try Paperless 3.

    Bud

    Reply
  8. Lexa
    Lexa May 9, 2016 at 3:29 pm |

    Sadly Neat doesn’t realize that they will be loosing many customers in this transition to Cloud only products. I too can not or I should say, do not feel comfortable uploading sensitive information to a cloud…any cloud. I don’t only use Neat software for categorizing receipts but I also use it for my real estate business. With other people’s sensitive information it’s my license that’s on the line since the board won’t cared how I got hacked so Cloud based services are a no-go for me. I agree with you and would be willing to pay for the software separate from the hardware even though in my case it’s a hard pill to swallow since I only bought that less than 2 yrs ago and now the $400 investment seems wasted.
    You mentioned that it saved the files as PDFs. Is that still the case if you saved it under their nbak file system? BTW thanks for linking to those older versions, it was a life saver.

    Reply
  9. Mark Pincott
    Mark Pincott June 1, 2016 at 11:32 am |

    Chris, I agree, great post! I have been a user of the Neat desktop application (on the Mac) for 10 years. I have nearly 10,000 documents scanned using it. Eight months’ ago I was forced to upgrade my (Neat) scanner to the ‘latest model’. My new scanner looks and feels just like the old one, but now it has a different model number. I have a nasty feeling that this was an unnecessary upgrade just to force me to spend some money with Neat. However, I can’t prove that. However, the latest software and the scanner driver do NOT play well with El Capitan. The software crashes regularly. The scanner cannot be found, etc. I could go on (and on)!

    However, this is fundamentally good software. I don’t understand why Neat would suddenly give up on it? Neat are walking away from a loyal customer base for those looking for cloud storage. I am sorry, but I just don’t see the market for that? Why wouldn’t users just use Dropbox, iCloud, Tresorit, etc to store their Neat documents?

    But the very worst part is that Neat are leaving their loyal customers in the lurch. The current software (Windows (apparently) and Mac) is just not robust. It just feels like they are giving up?

    Oh, and my scanner that I expected to give me another 10 years’ of service, is just 8 months old!

    Reply
  10. Chris Weddle
    Chris Weddle June 5, 2016 at 5:35 pm |

    Wow, great post. Came across this thinking that I was just not finding the correct way to upgrade my software. I was pushed to this because like the prior post buy Mark Pincott, I was needing a new scanner. Not because mine was bad, but because it was the wrong model number. I saw the obvious cash grab and have been using my own version of your Plan A to avoid getting a new scanner. I had no idea they were dumping the software support. Very disappointing. I really want to find my own version of a Plan B. What do you thing of just going with something like the Fujitsu ScanSnap iX100, or the Doxie One? Good scanners, I’m sure but are the software suites not at all comparable? I want to find something that I can go to that is likely to keep getting support and import all of my Neat scans into. Again, thanks for the article. Kept me from taking the plunge and buying a new version of the Neat scanner.

    Reply
  11. James Katt
    James Katt June 10, 2016 at 11:30 pm |

    To keep Legacy Software working even as Apple upgrades Mac OS X past 10.11, I install Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server 10.6 each its its own virtual machine in Parallels Desktop, hosted on a Mac running the latest Mac OS X [currently 10.11 El Capitan].

    I link shared folders on my Mac Host on the Virtual Machines so that their output is immediately accessible to the rest of my Mac – and even various versions of Windows in their own virtual machines [I use Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows 10 simultaneously]

    I suppose this way, Neat Desktop can live forever in a Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 Virtual Machine. Essentially it is frozen in time but completely usable.

    Reply
  12. Kathy Duffy
    Kathy Duffy June 26, 2016 at 10:08 pm |

    I bought Neat Desktop for my home about 5 years ago and never used it much because the scanner kept jamming. I probably should have taken it back. Spent too much money on it to let it collect dust.

    But, I happened to have a ScanSnap ix500 at the office that I love but never used it with Neat software. Well, fast forward to I just went through an IRS audit. I brought the ScanSnap home, hooked it up to my Neat Desktop Software and I’ve fallen in love. Wow! Neat/ScanSnap was a life saver! The ScanSnap scanner works so much better than the Neat scanner.

    After scanning thousands of receipts and important docs, I was not a happy camper to discover that Neat was no longer going to offer the Neat Desktop software. What a mistake. I, like so many others, refuse to use the Cloud for sensitive documents. Besides, I don’t want to get sucked into the monthly fee. I’d rather purchase software and then pay to upgrade when I’m ready.

    So, I did some more research and found out that the ScanSnap has a receipt software that comes with the software package. It has some pretty cool features. So, transitioning to the ScanSnap receipts software will be my “Plan B” when I can’t use Neat anymore.

    Two questions:

    1. I am a Mac user (El Capitan). I’m using Neat 4.1. Should I upgrade? Do I lose functionality if I do?

    2. With Neat 4.1, there isn’t an easy way to do backups. I do have an old Time Machine collecting dust at the office. Maybe I should hook it up.

    Thanks for your advice. And for the great post!

    Reply
  13. Patrick
    Patrick July 21, 2016 at 4:14 pm |

    Great article! I too am one of the Mac users who feel abandoned by Neat after purchasing a very expensive scanner only to have the company drop it’s support for their product without ever fixing it. Their website still says they are working on a final release of Neat for Mac, but it has been months and we are still stuck with a buggy beta version of it’s software. I like many here refuse to pay a monthly fee to store my receipts in the cloud. It is so seldom that I would ever need to access something of this nature when I’m away from home/office. If I did need to, I would use something drop box or the numerous other cloud based storage that is already out there and free.

    Neat, if you are watching this site, please know that you are leaving a portion of your loyal customer base by the wayside. If Cloud based services are your main goal, then at least provide a paid desktop software for the rest….and one that actually works. Thanks.

    Reply
  14. Chris
    Chris July 24, 2016 at 9:52 am |

    THANK YOU for these links. I just had to wipe my laptop and had moved my database to an external for storage not realizing that I could no longer download the software as easily as before and just re-import. You have saved me SUCH TROUBLE! Thank you thank you thank you! (i also love neat and have used it since 2010 when I bought my neat scanner and have been using the same device ever since – it is a great product)

    Reply
  15. Keith G
    Keith G July 28, 2016 at 4:20 pm |

    Overall I’m also disappointed with Neat’s decision on desktop vs cloud software. First, I don’t want my documents stored in the cloud. I suppose I would be able to store them there and then painfully export each one to a desktop folder as a PDF (did you ever notice that there’s not even an “export” toolbar button available?!). But that’s kind of a pain.

    Also, I’ve been pushing Neat to develop a more robust data architecture for several years that would be able to accommodate new data types, particularly checks. How can you have a financial system that can scan receipts and invoices and business cards but not checks? I don’t get it! And now they do make that available, but only in the cloud version. That’s just mean.

    So yeah, it’s ok software, I don’t think the OCR is any great shakes (I always have a lot of editing to do), some user interface issues like the crop borders, can’t type dates with 4-digit year, and other stupid quirky things, and did I mention that there’s no export button on the toolbar?!).

    But it basically does what I need it to do, which is be a compact desktop scanner. Because I am mostly scanning checks and other documents, I actually do NOT use the OCR engine or any of the intelligence built into the app. If it could process checks, I would have been very happy 5 years ago. Now, too jaded. 🙂

    Reply
  16. Lynn
    Lynn July 29, 2016 at 7:49 am |

    Hey Christopher,
    Just found your website this morning as a search for ‘Please sign in to initiate sync’. After a week of being unable to access my NEAT on my PC, I finally got it back yesterday (after buying their basic support plan-but I don’t think that had anything to do with it).
    Regardless, I don’t want my sensitive information floating around out there in the cloud, so I have a question for you: Is there a way to use the NEAT program with a printer/scanner that I buy elsewhere, and ditch the NEAT?
    (I loved my NEAT and think it was tacky of the company to abandon us after we became so dependent on it).
    Thanks.
    Lynn

    Reply
  17. Fran
    Fran September 11, 2016 at 8:24 pm |

    Hello Christopher,
    This article is on point and well done. I thank you for it. It has allowed me to see I am not alone in the way I feel Neat has treated me (all of us desktop users). Nonetheless, I had been searching for 3rd party software that could run the Neat scanners, and that is how I found your site. It is a shame we the consumers are left out on the cold. Because the scanner came with decent software, was the only reason why I purchase more than one scanner. Now it has proven to had been a mistake.

    Thank you for voicing how we feel. Perhaps I should just cut my losses and tell Neat good-bye.

    Reply
  18. Rob Oglesby
    Rob Oglesby September 23, 2016 at 8:36 am |

    Christopher —

    Great post. Thanks for the additional insight as to Neat’s lame idea for moving on. I’ve used their products for about 8 years now. First on the PC and now on the Mac. I get many of these comments regarding not wanting their data on the cloud. For me, I’m less concerned about that (maybe I should be…).

    The last few months have been very frustrating because their sync process on the 4.5 desktop version just stopped working. I’ve got several years of archived receipts, and for the last year, I’ve now realized, their cloud has not successfully archived my data. My desktop is fine, but if I’m going to continue to have intermittent issues as I upgrade OSX, I can only imagine this is a ticking time bomb (and I don’t have another Mac laying around that I can install Mountain Lion on or something…plus I need to scan on the road when I travel to keep my weekends sane).

    Yesterday, I spent about 4 hours on with their “support” team. Trying to get the sync to work. Trying to get the cloud up to date with my desktop. The support person failed to make it happen. The only alternative I was given was to export several thousand receipts (most of what I use the software for) to PDFs and then import them into the Cloud version. What a joke. First, the process of import is not only slow, it just stops working after a while! I started a folder with 600 items in it yesterday afternoon. It’s only on 175 now…and I’m not even sure if it is still working (in the background). In addition, ALL of the translated data is GONE. The fields are completely reset thanks the fact that it started from SCRATCH as if I just scanned the stuff in the first place.

    Then there are my concerns about the functionality of the Cloud based product. I feel like I just went from Microsoft Word to Notepad. What a joke! No way to add/delete columns (at least it isn’t intuitive), no way to re-analyze a scan, no more selecting multiple items for update (like category, etc).

    And the worst is how impossible they’ve made it to transition my data IF I want to do it. I completely agree with your assessment that they’ve really blown it. Major steps back in capability. Forcing people onto a platform that they are uncomfortable with. And a non-existent upgrade path. I’m going to LOSE a lot of data if I go through with this “port”.

    Reply
  19. Lane Hasler
    Lane Hasler October 6, 2016 at 3:56 pm |

    After years of using Neat desktop, with all of my business and personal receipts scanned, two days ago I discovered that the legacy app has a bug that prevents me from seeing past page 1 on multi-page receipts (ie bank statements)

    What is worse, this bug affected the last 8 months of receipts.

    Neat Support admitted this is a bug, that there will be no further updates to the software, and that I’ve lost access to 8 months of receipts.

    End of story for Neat for me – and it should be for all other Neat users.

    Now I’m looking for a replacement application.

    The Neat software had the right features, but I can’t find a replacement. Any thoughts?

    Reply
    1. Rich Holland
      Rich Holland October 19, 2016 at 8:21 am |

      I found the same problem and they filed a bug report, but nothing else has been done about it. My workaround:

      1) import multiple individual files from PDFs I’ve scanned with camscanner
      2) combine to a single document in Neat
      3) EXPORT that single document to a new PDF on the desktop
      4) DELETE the single document from Neat
      5) IMPORT the freshly exported PDF from the desktop back into Neat

      If you quit or Neat crashes between steps 3 & 5, you’ll lose the data. Sure doesn’t build confidence in the safety of my data!!!

      Reply
  20. David Billings
    David Billings October 14, 2016 at 3:34 am |

    I and the rest of the members of my company have been using Neat Desktop for years. We also have the cloud version, and have the Desktop version syncing to the cloud account. Several days ago, the Desktop version stopped syncing to our cloud account.

    For us this is a critical event in that we work on a global basis, and while in countries such as China, we cannot access the cloud. Also, while in China and many other countries, we don’t want to sync to the cloud since this opens us up to hackers. And I can tell you that this is a real threat.

    By using the Desktop version but with the syncing function not turned on, we were able to keep up to date with our receipts. Then when we got back to the States we were able to sync to the cloud.

    Discontinuing the Desktop version and only providing a cloud version, is shortsighted and for us dangerous. And for Neat, it is stupid in that they are forgetting the customer and their needs. Clearly in this case, they have not thought out all of the ramifications, both short and long term, for themselves and their customers.

    I used to be the head of high tech lending for a major national association bank, including handling loan workouts. In one case, a company took this similar path and didn’t think out all of the security functions which they could have taken into consideration if they had talk to the customer. This failure led to the government recommending that everyone drop the software including all of the subcontractors that worked with the government.

    But for now, I need to “Decide and Act” and find another Windows Desktop alternative. Any suggestions?

    Reply
  21. pam willars
    pam willars October 17, 2016 at 6:16 am |

    Misery loves company. I started having issues last week with the software and thought an uninstall / reinstall might work. When I went to download the file was when I discovered it was now a cloud only solution. Just no. I want my documents local and with in my control. I archive off past years and have a backup service. This signifies that Neat has no concern for home / small business users.

    I’ve just now started the search for an alternate.

    This also happened with my home financial software earlier this year.

    Reply
  22. D. Miller
    D. Miller October 29, 2016 at 12:04 pm |

    Great post – I’m also a huge fan of the desktop software. I started with neat mobile on windows, went to neat desk and now use neat connect. I still have all three scanners, but rely mostly on the connect at home, and mobile while on travel. I’m managing an account of my own as well as a separate Neat cloud account for my father-in-law. The neat cloud and neat connect allows him to scan receipts and bills which I can easily pull down and access via the neat cloud with my desktop software signed into his account.

    I’m actually running both the neat desk version on OS X 10.12 and the cloud software side by side on my mac book pro with both accounts. The cloud based software allows me to see whats in the cloud, while the desktop software allows me to better manipulate the receipts and data, at least while the synch works. That has been the primary problem.

    The neat cloud software, however, is slow, poor, and has lost functionality. I can no longer combine receipts, delete pages from receipts, or duplicate receipts. These are functions I routinely use to manage my archives. Even zooming in to view receipts on the cloud based software is difficult to manage and view. The cloud synch in the desktop software, while not perfect, provides a much quicker process. I can synch/pull down receipts and documents from the neat cloud, then review/update and file those in the desktop software and synch the changes back to the cloud.

    My problem has been synch errors which essentially lock out the synch process. There is no way to recover without contacting customer support, and it usually involves building a new local library. My library is currently over 20GB which takes quite a bit of time to rebuild. Although all the support reps state no support for the legacy software, after checking my account and status I’ve still been able to get support. It gets even more challenging when I’m trying to resolve problems on both accounts – and explain that I’m running both legacy and current software platforms. Usually there’s something in the synch log which corrupts the process and locks out the synch. Although I can reset the synch log locally (I’ll post how to do that at the bottom), it doesn’t seem to clear the error in the cloud which causes the synch to error out in the first place.

    To reset the synch in the legacy MAC desktop software, with the software open and preferably logged into the cloud account, press CTRL-SHIFT-R-S all at once. You’ll be prompted to clear all synch data, and the software will shut down when you confirm the selection. Then when you log back in you’ll have to log back into the cloud account, at which time it will begin synching again.

    This process seems to work to get the process moving again, but again, it doesn’t appear to fix the problem which created the error to begin with. Even going back through the cloud to delete/remove or change receipts which may be causing the fault doesn’t seem to help as the synch changes are kept serially. I believe tech support is able to reset the cloud side to an initial synch which then just replicates the cloud to the desktop library. It would certainly be helpful if Neat provided that option by logging into your cloud account online.

    I’ve provided significant feedback to Neat through their tech support as to why I’m not happy with the current cloud based solution. Not that I’m seeing any progress in that area.

    Finally, while I’ve been continuing to run the neat desk (ver 4.5.0) under OS X Sierra 10.12, other than the synch problems I’ve not had too many other issues. Actually I’ve had the cloud based software (ver 1.4.4.19) shut down more often, but I just open it back up and it works fine. The only issue I’ve seen is that the ability to reorganize PDF pages within a single receipt from the table view no longer works. While before you were able to select the page to view in the bookmarks to the right, you can no longer select them or move them. In fact the only way to view pages after 1 is to actually open the receipt/document and flip through the pages.

    Hope this helps, and if anyone out there has any other assistance to share regarding legacy synch issues, I’m open to suggestions.

    Reply
  23. Mike
    Mike October 30, 2016 at 8:51 am |

    Great article and thanks for doing this… Finally, someone else is going through the same pains as I with Neat. Bought the basic support package just to tell me yes the desktop doesn’t work. 30 days after I have given them the dump, the log and all necessary data… still no answer from Neat… All I get is the rhetoric. Just bought two Neat desktops from Staples to give to my sons as they need to get their bills organized. This is not the way you treat your customers or clients….
    THIS IS THE END OF NEAT. Because they are not a trusted source ….Still looking for an alternative!!!

    Reply
  24. merlynwylld
    merlynwylld November 14, 2016 at 4:57 pm |

    History does repeat it’s self, Anyone remember PaperPort? I lost a lot of old documents locked into a format that nothing would open.
    I did your Plan A for awhile but time moves on and it breaks down and becomes impossible to maintain. All you manage to do is get more documents stored that you will possibly lose access to.
    I didn’t get pulled in to the Neat world. I learned to avoid App’s that store the files into one database like Apple’s current Photos App.
    I blame this all on Adobe for pushing this Cloud idea and making people pay every month and never really own your software.

    Reply
  25. Mark
    Mark November 15, 2016 at 11:01 pm |

    Thanks for the great resource for Neat Desktop users! I’m on OS X 10.12 and using the ancient 4.1 software, but with a Fujitsu Snapscan S1500M and not really hitting any new issues from recent OS X upgrades. Had to abandon their scanner hardware years ago after every document was skewed left or right by a bit due to the sloppy paper feed (but I still have the scanner if anyone needs an extra).

    All my issues are with the quirks in the software, such as the very slow OCR speeds. But these are minor because I am not a heavy user of the product. I was just curious why the software had not offered to updated itself like most modern Mac apps do.

    Since I am a software engineer, I am tempted to start an open source replacement project, although replicating all the functionality would be a huge undertaking. I am curious what features are most valuable to others, but in any case I suppose the first task is to reverse engineer the database schema of the NRMData.nrms file, which is thankfully a standard SQLite database. Then potentially the folder & document hierarchy could be recovered so we didn’t have to manually deal with the crazy PDF file names, perhaps easing the import process into Paperless or other alternatives that have a better future.

    Reply
    1. Mark
      Mark May 2, 2017 at 1:52 pm |

      To follow-up on my own post, I ended up reading through the “Take Control of Your Paperless Office” ebook (at https://www.takecontrolbooks.com/paperless-office), and decided to go with DEVONThink Pro Office.

      The integration with my Fujitsu Snapscan is seamless and the built-in OCR seems like a step up from Neat Desktop, at least in performance. However, I do not think it is tailored for tabulating receipts — it seems more for general purpose document management. Paperless might be better for receipts.

      It just so happens that DEVON Technologies is having an anniversary sale (May 1-5), so it is a good time to buy. I have no other affiliation with them except as a satisfied customer.

      I am also nearly done writing a script to extract & rename documents out of the original Neat Desktop SQLite database. The goal is to make it easy to drag-and-drop the resulting folder structures into tools like DEVONthink and Paperless. I will post again when it is ready on Github.

      Reply
  26. John
    John November 17, 2016 at 6:37 pm |

    I have noticed a general theme with most of the comments regarding having documents in the cloud. I don’t want my documents in the cloud either but my reasons today are different than they were a couple of years ago. My original reasons were for document security (but that faded once I realized the futility of my aims), low latency access, and availability (no internet service means no document access). Now my reasons for the latter two; low latency access and availability. Both are still very important to me. However the first concern: Security, is no longer reasonable to fret about because my security has already been compromised by everyone else. It’s kind of like email. You don’t want spam so you don’t give your email address to anyone but close friends. A close friend has your address but he also has a really bad password so your address gets stolen when his machine (or address book in the cloud) gets compromised. The security is only as good as the weakest link in the chain, your good buddy who doesn’t think having a complex password with a number, a capital letter, and non standard characters, that’s at least 10 characters long, is necessary. So because of their carelessness YOU become the victim.

    Most people do not realize that whether they like it or not, they are already in the cloud. A majority of businesses have already shifted their customers’ accounts to the cloud in some way, shape, or form. Local businesses such as Electric Companies, Water Companies, Cable Companies, Internet Providers, Local Banks, Schools, Retail stores, and many, many more are all in the cloud.

    They were forced to do so in order to compete with similar businesses in their area of focus. So even if you aren’t storing your documents in the cloud, many of the businesses that maintain your account data are. So you are already in the cloud whether you like it or not. You had no choice in this matter. They decided for you. Since they all must comply with local and national laws regarding maintaining your privacy and protecting your personal information, for them, it’s better to turn over the responsibility for storage and security to a company whose full time job is just that or has someone on their staff that spends their entire day working on and thinking about network and data security. Most cloud providers have someone whose job is to secure the network and data resources. So believing you are safe because you keep all your documents on your own personal computer is erroneous.

    I had an interesting conversation with a partner in a company that provides services for a well known social network and he said. It’s over. They already know everything about you and have for more than ten years.

    Another interesting conversation I had was with a temp employee who was working for a major bank scanning Mortgage Loan Documents. (This bank is huge and you’ll know who they are because they are so big). He indicated that he was scanning loan documents and uploading them to a storage site where clerks across the ocean in India would verify and correct and/or do any required manual data entry on the documents so they could all be digitized. Just imagine going to a country where the average salary is $4,000.00 a year and finding a struggling clerk and handing them a USB drive and saying: “If you can grab me a copy of all the data files you process, I will give you $50,000. This would be too tempting for someone who was vulnerable and the truth is this has already happened in the United States with server administrators or individuals who have access to a server admins credentials.

    See: “Who Profits From Spam, Surprise” http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3078642/

    Let’s suppose though that you are on a Mac and are diligent and decide to place some documents in the cloud but do so using an encrypted .dmg file. You create the file. Password protect it. Then copy it to the cloud. When you open it in the cloud you are prompted for your password, the disk image opens on your Mac and you are able to access your documents knowing that no one else can read them in transit because not only is the .dmg encrypted the connection is too. (To a small extent). In this case you would still be relying on and trusting that the company that created the technology didn’t have some back door keys they keep and also provide to your government. While we are told the encryption is secure, how do we know for sure? We have to trust them. The reality being that if they did give additional keys to law enforcement or government, do you think they would admit it? Especially now when it’s really bad for business to admit such things.

    So worrying about the cloud because of document security is probably pointless.

    Now on to the bigger issue that concerns us all… What to use next or how to get the Neat Corporation to listen to it’s customers who want a desktop product to continue to be offered. As far as Neat Corp. goes, write them a letter to their corporate officers. They are listed on this page:

    http://www.neat.com/company/leadership/

    I would start with Michael Crincoli the president of the company but I would also send a copy to the other officers listed on the page. These are the guys that need to hear from you. This might be the only way to get the company to address your concerns.

    As it is in the world leaders always emerge and soon acquire smaller players and sometimes competitors. I think we are a couple of years away from that happening in the consumer document management business sector. However, you might also want to send copies of the same letter to their competitors in this area. Doing so reminds them they are competing against other worthy companies and the other companies might just decide to create a product that does exactly what Neat Desktop Software does and not only that, they may design the software so that it will directly import the Neat Software database library file. So you win either way. That’s my two cents.

    Reply
  27. A Kines
    A Kines November 25, 2016 at 12:06 pm |

    I have 4 years of receipts in Neat Desktop, each in their own Cabinet that I store on Dropbox. I’ve run Neat on 3 Macs since 2012 and it’s alway been a simple process of syncing Dropbox and installing Neat and pointing it at the Cabinets stored there. I bought it with the small bar scanner but eventually upgraded to the Scansnap S1300i which is great for Neat and a whole bunch of other uses (found box of old photo snapshots into iPhoto? – DONE!).
    Neat has always given me reason to question their business practices. There was the shutting down of the forum a few years back when it became an echo chamber of complaints that they weren’t addressing. I signed up for the Cloud solution as some of the features seem attractive but I haven’t used them much and I really don’t like having everything in one giant library and a menu bar with maybe two options in it.
    The final straw was when using the legacy desktop version, I would dump in a ton of receipts, analyze them and then go to clean them up. Normally I would go by Vendor and hit enter to go to the next entry but every time I tried that it would switch out from “text entry” mode to “highlighted item selection” and I would have to click on the next item’s vendor to make the next edit. I can’t say this was intentional on their part as a way to get people to move to the cloud software but there’s no way to see that interaction as a feature so at the very least it’s a work slowing bug and there would seem to be no chance of that getting fixed so I am getting out of Neat entirely.
    I’ve tried Paperless once before and I don’t mind it. There are a few things that bug me in the UX but it’s better than Neat in many ways and more solidly a Mac app. Neither Neat or Paperless are REALLY good apps in that they make what should be a straightforward proposition too complicated. I work in TV/Film and the standard in the apps I use there (FCP, Premiere, AVID, Resolve, Fusion, AfterEffects) is much higher for operator efficiency and customizable workflow.
    I did a quick check of the ScanSnap Receipts and it is straightforward and simple. It looks like a simple database app with a quickly sketched front end. I don’t know about committing to something that is clearly an afterthought for a company interested in pushing hardware. The data is stored in a database file in the library/app support folder as far as I could tell. I’ll give it a few more looks before I give up completely.
    Paperless does offer a discount if you move from another solution to theirs. You have to email them for a code or something.
    I have a pre-touchbar MacBookPro running ElCapitan and before I upgrade anything to Sierra I am going to have to get all the data out of the old Neat Cabinets into something I can move forward. Ugh!

    Reply
  28. Vernon Ward
    Vernon Ward January 2, 2017 at 1:59 am |

    Don’t suppose you have a link for my version MACOS Sierra Version 10.12.2?

    Thank you for the article

    Reply
  29. Daniel
    Daniel January 4, 2017 at 4:36 pm |

    I wanted to thank you for such a good post. I’m kind of in the same boat as you but I’m looking for a neat type solution that allows me to scan using Windows, Mac, or iOS all the while syncing using Dropbox. I have a mac at home, a Windows box at work, and when I purchase things out and about, the only tool at my disposal is my iPhone. I don’t mind at all the cloud sync aspect. I’m currently web surfing hope to find the best solution for my needs. Thank you again for sharing your insights.

    Reply
  30. Brett Tepper
    Brett Tepper January 18, 2017 at 7:19 am |

    Ran into an issue trying to install on my Windows 10 Pro machine. Any help or suggestions?

    Component SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2 has failed to install with the following error message:
    “Fatal error during installation. ”

    The following components failed to install:
    – SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2

    See the setup log file located at ‘C:\Users\Brett\AppData\Local\Temp\VSD460E.tmp\install.log’ for more information.

    Reply
    1. Jeff Bowman
      Jeff Bowman January 18, 2017 at 3:11 pm |

      Hi Brett

      The resident expert on SQLCE (an excellent standalone database product now unfortunately discontinued by Microsoft) is Eric Ejlskov, better known as ErikEJ. His blog is here: http://erikej.blogspot.com/

      What does the install log have to say? Any errors indicated?

      Thanks,
      Jeff Bowman
      Fairbanks, Alaska

      Reply
  31. Jeff Bowman
    Jeff Bowman January 30, 2017 at 12:26 am |

    From the Neat Desktop v5.7 application’s main screen:

    Neat 5.7 is the fastest way to transform your business and personal receipts,
    business cards, and documents into organized digital files that you can
    easily store, search, secure and report on.

    I’d like to propose a couple of minor edits:

    Neat 5.7 is the slowest way to transform your business and personal
    receipts, business cards, and documents into organized digital files that you
    can—with much difficulty—store, search, secure and report on.

    Aside from QuickBooks, I don’t think I’ve encountered a more poorly authored piece of software. In fact it’s worse, if that can be possible. It’s absolutely maddening.

    Reply
  32. James Tongg Weiler
    James Tongg Weiler February 4, 2017 at 2:40 pm |

    So what’s the alternative to neat for mac?

    Reply
  33. Louis Erickson
    Louis Erickson February 18, 2017 at 7:13 pm |

    Hi, Chris. I’ve just struggled with the same issues, and have gone the Paperless direction.

    Paperless’ OCR isn’t as good as Neat’s was. To work around that, I replaced my Neat Desktop Scanner (which was getting sort of cranky anyway, with misfeeds and bad scans now and again) with a Fujitsu SnapScan.

    The SnapScan has its own quirks, but the driver includes the OCR and saves searchable PDFs. Paperless then imports those PDFs and allows you to search them.

    The Fujitsu also came with a version of Abbyy and several other tools, which I haven’t even explored. It will also scan straight into a number of apps, including EverNote and Photos, as well as to a folder or Google Drive.

    Since the SnapScan is making searchable PDFs, you could theoretically just use the file system, letting Spotlight do the searching. That actually seems to work surprisingly well. It did with Neat, too.

    There’s a way to export from Neat Desktop and keep more of your metadata. You have to do it once per folder, so it is a little fiddly not to lose all your folder structure. (This did not used to be the case, but they “fixed” it.) Then you have PDFs that are easy to import into Paperless or anything.

    This was not a cheap move – the Fujitsu scanner is expensive. OTOH, it does seem to be remarkably awesome, with improved paper handling and better color matching than the Neat Desk scanner. It’s also faster. Paperless is not free, but not expensive. There’s a “competitive upgrade” pricing for a few bucks off Paperless that doesn’t hurt, either. You might skip it and try the software Fujitsu bundles, too.

    So far, it has worked well. And having a company who will actually respond to you when you have questions about the software is excellent, as will be ongoing support for future versions of Mac OS.

    Glad to hear I’m not alone, and that Neat has made a real bummer of a support choice with this.

    Reply
  34. Cory Siansky
    Cory Siansky February 24, 2017 at 5:51 pm |

    I’m not sure if this can be replicated by others, but I have a stable instance of Neat for Mac working in Sierra. My story: After I upgraded to Sierra (Mac 10.12.2, currently) Neat did not work. I upgraded to Neat 4.5 and 4.7 without luck, and then managed to downgrade to Neat 4.3.0 (build 430036), which I had available from a prior download. It works on Sierra 10.12.2. Some quirky issues/bugs I have observed in this configuration: (1) Neat is missing the ability to re-order pages. (2) It is missing the ability to select a page (other than the first page) from the sidebar to view it in the preview window (in fact the little page number for the thumbnails images is missing–the thumbnails themselves are still there). However it is possible to select the document from the list by double clicking it, and in the pop-up window flowing from page to page behaves normally. (3) Neat doesn’t automatically update the thumbnail images if you delete a page in the pop-up window, as it used to. For example, if you have a four page PDF and you delete page 4, the thumbnails in the sidebar will show 4 of them, even though the document has only three pages. (4) The app crashes when attempting to rotate page images, however the page usually (but not always) is properly rotated when Neat is re-launched. (5) Sometimes on launch, Neat will spawn two identical application windows of the same default library–one exactly on top of the other. And you tend not to know that there are two of these windows until you close the first window when you are done with your work (but there doesn’t seem to be any data spoliation). This problem is avoided if I close the last Neat window before selecting Command-Q to quit. If I just quit the application without closing all Neat active windows, it spawns two Neat instances the next time Neat launches. Aside from these 5 odd buggy behaviors, the application still works. But this is not a long term solution if Neat has abandoned all of us desktop users. It is time for all of us to find a new choice.

    Reply
  35. Ezekiel Victor
    Ezekiel Victor March 3, 2017 at 8:53 am |

    I begrudgingly have used Neat for about 5 years with the NeatDesk. The scanner is a phenomenal piece of hardware but their software has consistently sucked. No matter PC or Mac, which I’ve used both, and now more recently the cloud connected software, there are productivity killing crashes, slowness, and confounding UIs abound. It’s a shame. Every year or so I look for viable alternatives but haven’t found anything to rid me of the pain working with Neat software is.

    Reply
  36. Raymond D. Nalewajek
    Raymond D. Nalewajek March 9, 2017 at 9:44 am |

    Just found this post – so the question may be redundant, but, I have 10.8.5 and Neat software 4.1.0(410187). If I go to the newest OSX – will this run?

    Reply
  37. Dwight
    Dwight March 29, 2017 at 8:44 pm |

    Where can I find the legacy software download ? There is nothing on the neat website . This is my main issue.

    Reply
  38. dwight
    dwight March 30, 2017 at 7:27 am |

    Christopher, Thank you for this page and information. There are times when the internet can be a enemy or a friend. Yesterday trying to locate the information I needed on the Neat website it was my enemy, But late yesterday after my last attempt at googling I stumbled on this page.
    I want to thank you for putting this together. I now have a chance of making my Idea a reality!
    Where can I find information on scanning receipts to quick books?

    Reply
  39. Dwight
    Dwight April 9, 2017 at 2:30 pm |

    I have encountered ” Neat has stopped Working”
    a problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close program and notify you if a solution is available.

    What is the fix ?

    Reply
  40. Dwight
    Dwight April 9, 2017 at 2:40 pm |

    I was able to fix it as a scan was in process I rebooted a few times and deleted it and that solved the problem, I apologize if i come to you with issues but you are the expert and I am fumbling around in the dark ,
    Thank you for allowing me to ask questions

    Reply
  41. Mike Goodman
    Mike Goodman April 9, 2017 at 6:33 pm |

    I am sooooo screwed – need help… a couple of weeks ago I scanned in all of my receipts for my 2016 taxes. I have to go to my accountant tomorrow morning so I was going to put the report on a Zip drive. Now I can’t open the Neat Program. I go to the Cabinet itself and try and force open – no luck. I am not a computer person and a newbie on MAC. Running OS Sierra 10.12.4
    Can anyone please help.
    I have reloaded the neat desktop software and also new driver – no luck…

    Reply
  42. stan
    stan April 10, 2017 at 10:20 pm |

    Isn’t there a class action suit here?
    For those of us who purchased Neat to use local, “not Cheap” now we have a product that does not work or will not work, my windows 10 crashed with the legacy software so I am S.O.L.? They need to offer something in return.
    Thank you very much for your $$ but you cant use it anymore?

    Reply
  43. Dan
    Dan April 13, 2017 at 12:11 pm |

    Thank you for your page… started playing around and downloaded 4.0 and then when in program i used update to 4.1…so far working not crashing and the icons on side don’t work…otherwise its working.

    Reply
    1. Kathy Duffy
      Kathy Duffy April 26, 2017 at 9:25 pm |

      So, I thought I’d start the New Year off by biting the bullet and getting Paperless so I could put the entire 2017 year in the system. I had even tried a free trial back in the fall. So, I spent the money, bought the software and have had problems ever since with the OCR.

      Numbers do quite well with the OCR but the text fields are another matter. Paperless has a “Library” that comes with a list of merchants, mostly travel. Because this is a Canadian co, it seems like many of the merchants aren’t even US based. So, you have to manually enter the Merchants into the Library Config area in order for the OCR to hopefully recognize it. So, I’ve added restaurants, etc to the config and it’s done a pretty pitiful job of recognizing them. After entering a dozen or so merchants tonight, the OCR recognized THREE of them. Ugh. I want my money back. And I’m crying the blues over the death of Neat. The only option I know is to use ScanSnap’s free software, ScanReceipt. It’s very simple but it does the job. And the OCR works a ton better than Paperless, even if doesn’t have all the bells and whistles.

      In the meantime, I wrote to Neat, urging them to reconsider because I and thousands like me, refuse to put secure docs in the cloud. I welcome any advice!

      Reply
  44. Mark
    Mark April 25, 2017 at 1:31 pm |

    I’m starting off new to all of this receipt scanning, haven’t used Paperless or Neat

    My main issue is the data entry, not so much the receipt storage/archiving, that’s not much of a hassle.

    Will Paperless meet my needs, and significantly reduce the amount of data entry needed? The fact I can archive and store PDFs is awesome too, but it’s secondary priority.

    What scanner would you guys recommend to use with Paperless?

    Thanks for all the comments on here – I had high hopes for Neat, but after reading this, I’m glad I avoided the nightmare.

    Thanks in advance!

    Reply
  45. Sam
    Sam May 30, 2017 at 8:31 pm |

    Hi Chris,

    Bought a NeatConnect Scanner a little while back without realizing that they had discontinued it. I had been eyeing it for a long time and just thought I’d gotten lucky on a great deal (not very tech savvy). Never took it out of the box because I was planning on returning it but then I saw your article (Plan A) and it got me thinking.

    I have a lot of documents I want to digitize that I don’t use on a regular basis but they take up a lot of space. Some of them are way too sensitive for me to feel comfortable putting them up in the cloud. All of which I would like to be keyword searchable.

    What would it take to pull off your (Plan A)? I am totally willing to buy a laptop (which will probably run Windows X) to be totally dedicated to this task and this task alone. What are the work around/steps I need to take to make this happen? Remember I am not very tech savvy so really break it down for me if you’d be so kind.

    Thanks for your time and consideration in advance.

    Reply
  46. Joe Barnes
    Joe Barnes May 31, 2017 at 3:41 pm |

    Thanks for saving me a ton of headaches. Managed to get my files backed up from a pc that was way past being replaced, but then discovered that I could no longer down 5.7 from Neat. You just made me day and saved 8 years worth of info for me.

    Reply
  47. jay
    jay June 10, 2017 at 10:40 am |

    Hi Chris,

    Been following this post for quite some time. Stumbled across the following app by sheer luck:

    https://www.receipts-app.com/index.html

    And have been using it for a week. Works very well and has pretty good feature parity with Neat, plus there is a solid history of continued development. Hoping this works well for others too.

    Thanks

    Reply
  48. Rick Vogel
    Rick Vogel July 14, 2017 at 11:44 am |

    You sir… are a gentleman and a scholar. Don’t let anyone ever call you less. Thank you, thank you, thank you…

    Reply
  49. Jeremy
    Jeremy August 18, 2017 at 9:59 pm |

    Neat was fantastic!! Right up until they decided to inflict the cloud on their customers. I cannot put into words how disgusted I am with the disaster that this company became in the space of month. ALL my accounting files dating back 6 years and across 7 different business entities were mixed together, part deleted, part simply invisible and as a result completely, 100% disorganised. The cost of fixing this mess has been in the tens of thousands of dollars. This is aside from constant software crashing on both their legacy software (which was great until they ‘updated it’) and Neatcloud. After months of trouble shooting I managed to limit crashing (not eliminate) by replacing a PC, changing physical scanners (from Neat to the excellent Fuji Scansnap) ONLY scanning a SINGLE page at a time and using a seperate folder to scan into, then drag and drop across to that once-great platform Neat. Different computers do result in different results (don’t know how, but they do) and one of my Neat scanners suffers much more from a random black stripe down the centre third of the page than others – again strange. I haven’t managed to troubleshoot anything other than ‘random’ with this black stripe issue. That’s the now atrocious products they sell. Now the ‘customer support’. I appreciate providing support to such a woeful (why are they doing this to me??!!!????) product must be soul destroying, however, trying to extract something sensible from Neat Support themselves is like dealing with an ex-spouse’s mother after a lengthy divorce. Absolutely horrific and infuriating. Nearly 18 months of wasted emails, I do admire their ability to say the words there ‘is nothing we can do’ as creatively as they do, but that is the ONLY area of expertise I can recommend Neatdesk on . You CANNOT trust their software and support AT ALL.

    Putting your financial life in these people’s hands is EXTREMELY dangerous. PLEASE take heed of my warning.

    How anyone could ruin such a great product so quickly, so maliciously and so destructively is beyond me. Tell me how much a working neatdesk is and I would have paid it twice over!!

    Reply
  50. Rob S
    Rob S October 22, 2017 at 6:39 pm |

    Just wanted to leave my last few cents (and one question) here.

    First, thanks Christopher for this article/your thoughts. If nothing else its good to know that I’m not the only person in the world disrupted by Neat’s fumbling of their software. My solution over the past year was to run Neat desktop in a VM that’s only on El Capitan. That VM had access to literally one file on the host Mac — the Neat Library database file.

    It wasn’t perfect and the software is a little crashy (but lets be honest, it’s always been a little crashy and will never be fixed now). But then a week ago I noticed I only had the first page of a few (hundred) scanned combined documents due to the issue detailed very well by Rich Holland here:

    https://www.christopherprice.net/neat-desktop-mac-pc-discontinued-download-legacy-alternatives-3430.html#comment-1924

    Unlike Mr. Holland, this is a dealbreaker for me, I can’t work around potential DB corruption, and I’ve already lost a bit of data here.

    So I’m completely sold on giving the final middle finger to Neat and moving on to Paperless. My only question is — has anyone else been able to get their Neat Scanner to work on High Sierra with Paperless (or just Image Capture in general or any scanner software?)

    I have a NM-1000 mobile Neat scanner, and it would be nice if I didn’t have to buy new hardware here as well since the scanner itself always worked much better than their flaky-ass document management software.

    Also, if anyone at Neat ever reads this — L O L that you think anyone would upload all their financial documents to an online cloud service, especially run by a company who has put out such buggy software in the past and reacts to new OS updates by dragging their feet for 6 months about supporting it (even though the OS has been available to developers as a beta for months). How does that inspire confidence that when there is a zero-day attack out there that could impact your site (and my data) that it wouldn’t take you months to patch it?

    Reply
  51. Ava
    Ava November 2, 2017 at 9:30 am |

    Thank you so much for the downloads! I had to move my neat scanner/library to another computer after upgrading to OS High Sierra, and was able to download 4.1 to my older mac, and then simply copy my existing library file from my High Sierra computer onto a flash drive and use it to replace the new empty library file on my older mac.

    Reply
  52. Ron
    Ron November 22, 2017 at 4:12 pm |

    Any new conclusions after this very appreciated article? I like you like the desktop version but have been forced to switch to web based. Not quite the same. Thinking of switching to another system. I use PC. Any suggestions?

    Reply
  53. Lee Studley
    Lee Studley January 7, 2018 at 1:53 pm |

    As of 20180107, some windows update really hoses the last standalone versions of Neatdesk and it’s scanning ability. The app locks up and shuts down. Interestingly it continues processing the quesed doc after you close it and restart it. I’m testing “paperless” today. I agree 100% with you views on neatdesk’s bad decisions. Not every one can have reliable internet at all times and frankly, the cloud is not secure.

    Reply
  54. Angie
    Angie January 21, 2018 at 9:28 am |

    We’re in 2018 and where’s the lastest Max OSX10.7 and on download? It’s not there. The El Capitan still there but, will it work?

    Reply
  55. Jay
    Jay January 22, 2018 at 11:33 am |

    Ugh – it appears that the links are now down! Did anyone download the Windows Update file that could post it somewhere for us to download? Possibly the full install version too in case the update version bombs out? Thanks!

    Reply
  56. Maxxis
    Maxxis February 4, 2018 at 8:57 pm |
    Reply
  57. Moonwink
    Moonwink February 9, 2018 at 11:11 pm |

    Thank You Maxxis! After browsing through all these posts and replies, I’d given up hope of finding the software you linked to.
    I just purchased an ND-1000 at a thrift store that appears to be new in the box but the CD was missing. After finding out Neat went completely cloud based, I figured I had a boat anchor. There is no way I’d put any of my data “in the cloud.” I’d wan’t one of these for years for personal use but never could justify the expense. At least now I’ll be able to play around with it and see if the effort is worth it.

    Thanks again!

    Reply
  58. Moonwink
    Moonwink February 9, 2018 at 11:37 pm |

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/neat-marketing/UserGuides/Neat5ForPCUserGuideMarch2012.pdf

    Here’s a good link for the v5 user manual to go along with the software.

    Reply
  59. Steve Thatcher
    Steve Thatcher February 14, 2018 at 10:01 am |

    I was working on Neat Lite and the web thing over the last few days (been a customer for several years). I came to a conclusion that Neat must have actually bought one of the other more expensive products so they have crippled Neat so people will move to their “competitor.” It is the only thing that makes sense to me anymore. They had a great product and now it is so slow, so convoluted, that it is nearly unbearable to use. Neat’s local backup consists only of a pdf for each and every entry you have made in Neat all stuck in a single directory. I have over 3000 files in one folder that if Neat stopped and/or I cut their service, it would take me days to re-create the information I had already organized. Got to find a better solution that is not going down hill.

    Reply
  60. Michael
    Michael June 3, 2018 at 12:57 am |

    I’m attempting to set up a new installation of Neat Desktop on my El Capitan Mac, and have never registered an account with Neat.

    After installing Neat-4.5.0.99.dmg, I get the following error upon first run of the software:

    “NOTE: The Neat software you are trying to access is no longer supported.”
    “If you already have an account you can proceed to log-in below. If you are not a current subscriber, please visit http://www.neat.com/free-trial to try our latest software free.”

    How can I use the ND-1000 scanner on a Mac without subscribing?

    Error message: https://imgur.com/a/tM8iNLD

    P.S. I tried the Neat-4.0.3.153-Release.dmg software, but that simply says it can’t connect to the internet (apparently it needs to ping Neat before opening the software, and whichever server at Neat isn’t responding).

    Reply
    1. Ferris
      Ferris July 21, 2018 at 1:20 pm |

      I’ve found a version that is before Mac10.6-Neat-4.0.3.153-Release.dmg.
      It’s “Mac10.5 and earlier-NeatWorksForMac-v3.5.7.3-Release.dmg”.
      It was downloaded on 160305.
      The size is 233 MB (245,131,186 bytes)

      if your interested in getting it. I’m looking for a place to put it so you could download it…any suggestions?

      Reply
      1. Tony
        Tony September 22, 2018 at 1:31 pm |

        While I subscribe to Neat Cloud at the moment, I have all the documents local on my PC, but dont know how to get them to another tool

        Has anyone found a way to get the Neat details out and into another document archiving software without re-doing them one at a time?

        I am looking for something to manage two small businesses and my personal details and am willing to use another software tool, but dont want to deal with all the additional work to move over.

        Reply
  61. Deirdre
    Deirdre September 14, 2018 at 8:59 am |

    OMG!
    THANK YOU for this post! I downloaded the last official version of the desktop software and it sees my mobile scanner. I’ll look into Paperless at another time. Right now I have HUNDREDS of business cards to scan and get them imported into a spreadsheet or some other type of file system.

    Reply
    1. Monica Villalta
      Monica Villalta March 18, 2019 at 5:11 pm |

      Thank you for the initial –and any follow up– guidance.
      Where are you in 2019? Any updates or recommendations?

      I have stayed away from the cloud as much as I could. I feel the pressure growing as I updated my Outlook to a subscription, I feel the pressure growing and the cloud encroaching my space and sense of security.

      I did manage to get an update of the legacy NEAT software on my windows lap top last year. My friend asked if I wanted to go cloud based and I declined. It wasn’t till TODAY (!), as I was trying to send/save some documents to NEAT, that I realized something was wrong. Your article was the only source that helped me make sense of the mess.

      I am lucky I can still access my files and my scan still works, but I am mad as hell about being forced to move my most private documents to the cloud. I never intended to be in this position when I got neat ages ago. Again, I feel co-opted by technology monopolies.

      A year after your last entry, do you have any new recommendation. (I want old private Neat!). I am willing to pay. Don’t want to be on the cloud. Is there anything else in the market that you actually recommend in 2019? Otherwise, do I have to review and then PDF every single document to make sure I can access and open?

      Missing your presence….

      MLV

      Reply
  62. Herceg Novi
    Herceg Novi July 5, 2019 at 3:41 pm |

    After a lot of testing, I ended up switching from Neat Mac to Paperless 3.05.

    Here is the major pain point and the workaround:

    – Neat used to OCR documents and write the data back into the PDF. With Paperless, that does not occur any longer. Instead, Paperless OCRs the doc and stores it into Paperless database, but it does not write the data back into the PDF.

    – To remedy this I have used brew to install OCRMyPDF. Then I wrote an automator script:

    PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin

    for f in “$@”
    do
    “/usr/local/bin/ocrmypdf” –jbig2-lossy –optimize 3 –rotate-pages –clean –mask-barcodes –deskew –force-ocr “$1” “$1”

    done
    echo “$1”

    – The script above, when added to automator (run shell script, shell:/bin/bash, pass input as parameters) now shows in the context menu under services (e.g. I can right click on a pdf file and invoke this command)

    – My new workflow is as follows:
    a) open paperless
    b) scan a file using Neat Driver for Mojave (Kind Black and white, 300 dpi, duplex, JPEG, image correction=manual, move brightness and contrast sliders all the way to the right).
    c) the scanned file appears in the Paperless, and the app OCRs the doc, now you can find the file by searching Paperless
    d) At this point I right click on Paperless record of the file I just scanned, and select “Show in Finder”
    e) Once the actual file in finder is shown, I right click on it and select OcrMyPdf automator action from the services menu
    d) OcrMyPDF does an incredible job in compressing the file by a factor of 5-10, and embeds the searchable OCR info into the text, straightens the page, etc.

    Thanks to Christopher for this post.

    Reply
    1. Herceg Novi
      Herceg Novi July 5, 2019 at 4:25 pm |

      Here are some comments for migrating from Mac Neat with 10 years of document history to Mac Paperless 3.05.

      By the way, if you contact Mariner software helpdesk and tell them you want to migrate from Neat (or any other software), they will give you a discount for the license of 20%.

      I used the process below to ensure that I maintain coarse-level historical references in Paperless.

      The challenge was that if you import your historical documents into Paperless, Paperless will stamp the import date of today to all documents that it can not find the embedded date for. Therefore I found that it is best to adjust the clock to some date in the past and import one year (or an arbitrary time period) at the time. Then in Paperless all the documents that do not have a year associated with them are now defaulting to the date set up on my Mac’s clock. The workaround below ensures that I do not end up with thousands of documents with the current date and unreliable historical doc date references in Paperless.

      1) Open Neat
      2) Select all the documents for a particular time range, e.g. a year
      3) Export, selected documents, save them to a folder
      4) Create structure such as folders for historical periods (e.g. 2016, 2017, or 2016-Q1, 2016-Q2, or 2018-Jan, 2018-Feb, 2018-Mar, etc. You can choose what makes sense for you).
      5) After you export all of your documents based on historical periods you chose, go to paperless and import them
      6) Open Paperless, create a new library if necessary
      7) Change the Mac clock to the time period you want to import (you have to uncheck “automatically update” the clock)
      8) From Paperless select import, select folder that contains your exported documents. If Paperless cannot detect the date associated with the document, it will default to the date of your Mac clock
      9) Repeat steps 7 and 8 for all remaining folders
      10) After you are done with all folders, restore your mac clock (set it to auto update)
      11) In paperless you should have all the historical documents roughly ordered based on time periods you selected

      Reply
  63. Daniel McCorvey
    Daniel McCorvey July 16, 2019 at 9:41 am |

    Neat is working using Mojave OS and updated driver from Neat. FYI Using Neat 4.3.0

    Reply

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